New Disease Reports (2010) 22, 9.

Cylindrocladium buxicola causes common box blight in Croatia

T. Cech 1*, D. Diminic 2 and K. Heungens 3

*thomas.cech@bfw.gv.at

Show affiliations

Accepted: 26 Jul 2010

In 2009, beds of Buxus sempervirens and newly planted B. sempervirens 'Suffruticosa' in a park in Opatija, Croatia , showed extensive leaf and twig blight (Fig. 1). Leaves with dark roundish spots turned red-brown and grey, then dropped. Shoots and stems had dieback with narrow blackish streaks on the bark surface. Two widely occurring fungal pathogens of common box, Volutella buxi and Puccinia buxi, were sporulating abundantly on the diseased plants. However, the presence of dark spots on the leaves and blackish streaks on the bark suggested Cylindrocladium buxicola (Henricot & Culham, 2002). The symptoms we observed were similar to C. buxicola infections observed in other European countries (AGES, 2009; Brand, 2005; EPPO, 2005). Detached stems kept in a moist chamber at 20°C for five days developed fruiting structures consistent with C. buxicola: hyaline cylindrical conidia (50-58 x 4-6 μm), rounded at both ends, with a single septum, produced on stipes with conidiogenous cells arranged in penicils (Fig. 2). Sterile hyphae widened towards their tips developed among the conidiophores. Cultures grown from transfer of conidia to carrot agar (Leslie, 2006) were used to sequence the rDNA ITS regions and deposited in GenBank (Accession No. HM749646). Our sequence was identical to published sequences of C. buxicola (e.g. AY078112 from type strain RHS-9934 (Henricot & Culham 2002)).

Spore suspensions (c. 3 x107 spores/ml) of Cylindrocladium buxicola were sprayed on four-year old common box plants (B. sempervirens var. sempervirens). The plants developed leaf and dieback symptoms within 14 days and C. buxicola was confirmed sporulating on stems and leaves (Fig. 3). Control plants sprayed with sterile water remained healthy. This is the first report of C. buxicola from Croatia . In 2005 B. sempervirens 'Suffruticosa' plants from outside of Croatia were planted in Opatija and it is possible this is how C. buxicola was introduced.

Figure1+
Figure 1: Blight of common box caused by Cylindrocladium buxicola in 2009 in Opatija, Croatia
Figure 1: Blight of common box caused by Cylindrocladium buxicola in 2009 in Opatija, Croatia
Figure2+
Figure 2: Conidia and dilated paraphyses of Cylindrocladium buxicola
Figure 2: Conidia and dilated paraphyses of Cylindrocladium buxicola
Figure3+
Figure 3: Common box with blight symptoms 14 days after inoculation with Cylindrocladium buxicola
Figure 3: Common box with blight symptoms 14 days after inoculation with Cylindrocladium buxicola

Acknowledgements

We thank Christine Huettler, Marion Keßler and Hermina Brajkovic for their excellent technical assistance.


References

  1. AGES, 2009.Triebsterben an Buchsbaum (Cylindrocladium buxicola). Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) [http://www.ages.at/ages/landwirtschaftliche-sachgebiete/pflanzengesundheit/gartenbau/triebsterben-an-buchsbaum/].
  2. Brand T, 2005. Auftreten von Cylindrocladium buxicola B. HENRICOT an Buchsbaum in Nordwest-Deutschland  Nachrichtenblatt des Deutschen Pflanzenschutzdienstes 57, 237-240.
  3. EPPO, 2005. Cylindrocladium buxicola is a new disease of Buxus: addition to the EPPO Alert List. EPPO Reporting Service 2004/123 [http://archives.eppo.org/EPPOReporting/2004/Rse-0408.pdf].
  4. Henricot B, Culham A, 2002. Cylindrocladium buxicola, a new species affecting Buxus spp., and its phylogenetic status. Mycologia 94, 980-997.
  5. Leslie JF, 2006. The Fusarium Laboratory Manual. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

This report was formally published in Plant Pathology

©2010 The Authors